wheat breeding programs - uwa institute of ag · wheat breeding programs ... • marketing the...

GrainsWheat Breeding Programs

InterGrain – private company – WA Govt & GRDC (Grain research and Development Corporation - grower levies and

Federal Govt) –revenue source is EPR

Four wheat breeding programs based in WA

covering Australia (emphasis on WA)

• Four Wheat Breeders

• 180,000 plots/year across 14 sites

• 3,000 crosses/year

GrainsWheat Breeding Programs

Structure of Programs –each with different white grained spring wheat germplasm

• “North Wheat program” (Iain Barclay)– North and Central WA

– Drought tolerance & aluminium tolerance

• “Specialty program” (Robyn McLean)– Backcrossing rust resistance and sprouting tol into adapted lines

– Udon noodles

• “Southern program” (Chris Moore)– Disease resistance emphasis

– Alkaline soils tolerance in WA and SA

• “Eastern program” (Robin Wilson) – Vic & NSW

GrainsWheat Breeding Objectives

• Yield and adaptation– Abiotic stress tolerance (Al Boron, Drought, Waterlogging

and sprouting)

• Quality (95%WA wheat exported)– Six Milling Grades – White grain and Spring Wheat– Receival characteristics such as test weight,

screenings, black point, low LMA etc

• Disease resistance – Three Rusts

– Septoria nodorum blotch

– Yellow spot

– Septoria tritici blotch

– Barley Yellow Dwarf Virus

– Cereal Cyst Nematode

GrainsWheat Breeding Methodology

• F2 Progeny Method (major)

• Backcrossing

• Doubled haploids & Single Seed Descent

- routinely used often with Molecular Marker

enrichment

• Marker Assisted Selection

GrainsWheat Breeding Success

• Genetic Gain for yield – 1% per annum

• Quality – All our varieties eligible for premium grades

– All Noodle and Aust Soft vars from our prog

• Disease resistance – Latest varieties have improved resistance eg Wyalkatchem has better resistance to leaf and stripe

rust compared to Westonia

• Abiotic stress tolerance– Wyalkatchem & Westonia drought tolerance

GrainsArea in WA by wheat variety 2007

Rank Variety Grade % Cumul %

1 Wyalkatchem* Aust Premium White 29.4

2 Calingiri* ASWN (Noodles) 15.9 45.3

3 Carnamah * Aust Hard 7.9 53.2

4 Yitpi Aust Hard 7.6 60.8

5 Arrino* APN (Premium Noodles) 7.1 67.9

6 Bonnie Rock* Aust Hard 7.0 75.0

7 Westonia* APWT 4.4 79.4

* From our breeding programs - 78% of area

GrainsUtilising New Technologies

• Considerable progress on

the utilisation of the

molecular marker technology

– at several stages in the program

including BC*F1 enrichment prior to

backcrossing or production of

doubled haploids or use in SSD

– progress has been made for traits

that are difficult to phenotype such

as pre-harvest sprouting tolerance,

or diseases such as BYDV

GrainsUtilising New technologies

• Molecular Marker Development– We have developed and

phenotyped populations that have enabled molecular markers to be generated in conjunction with SABC (State Agricultural

Biotechnology Centre) & CSIRO

– eg marker for the rust resistance gene complex in Wyalkatchem (Yr29/Lr46)Loughman, Lagudah, Shankar etc

•Wyalkatchem selns Attila ^

YrR YrR YrR Yrs YrR YrR Yrs

GrainsUtilising New Technologies

• Rust screening of all

lines prior to any

yield test

– at Carnarvon

(stem and leaf rust)

and

– Manjimup

(stripe rust)


• Application of new

quality calibrations for

Near Infrared

Reflectance (NIR)

– for protein, flour yield

and colour and water

absorption

to all crossbreds

before yield testing

Non-destructive

small grain sample 50-100g

~250 samples / day

startup $$ high


Quality

• a new quality test for micro-water absorption has been developed that allows this to be measured

earlier in the program and on only 10grams of seed

• Automation of preconditioning for milling tests

means a greater throughput of samples


• Routine use of optimal trial designs

and analysis methods

– breeding lines can be placed at more

sites than previously without loss of

precision with new un-replicated

designs, which can also have partial

replication (Stefanova & Clarke, 2006)


• automatic seed preparation machine will enable

partial replication designs to be used, and routine

different randomisations at each site


• trial analysis

– greater discrimination has been made by

accounting for spatial trends over the trial

– trials are routinely analysed adopting

• a spatial linear mixed model approach (Gilmour etal,1997) and

• multiplicative models (Smith etal, 2001) using ASREML.


• Plant Breeding database management system -“PBGenesis”

– designed by breeders

– is used for all operations involved in running

large breeding programs– has greater functionality than existing

software packages

– is presently being developed into a web-based system


Direct printing onto sample

packets or harvest bagsBar coding harvest

samples

Computerisation

GrainsCollaboration

• ARC Linkage project with Hossein Saberiand Zed Rengel (UWA) on tolerance to Al,

Mn and Fe toxicities

– Provide information to growers and breeders

as to which varieties are tolerant to each

– identify probe varieties to establish the extent

of areas affected by ion toxicities

– Better understand the role of toxicity tolerance

in coping with transient waterlogging

GrainsCollaboration

• Utilisation of sources of

abiotic stress tolerances,

eg waterlogging tolerance

– strong linkage of our wheat breeding programs with the physiology group including UWA and international partners in India and China

– project with India has identified good sources of waterlogging tolerance in varieties and the doubled haploid lines from the population used in this project

– these are being used in the breeding programs in each country

GrainsFuture Challenges and Opportunies

• Transition from DAFWA to Intergrain

– Resources available (dependant on season)

– Personnel in the company vs contract

– Move to have impact on eastern states (and

consequences on breeding for WA)

• Need for functional markers for Cereal Cyst

Nematode resistance (important in SA & Vic)


• Marketing the wheat crop– With export wheat market deregulated there

are now to be several marketers

– We will need to establish relationships with each to ensure we are breeding for their market requirements

– Marketers vary considerably in experience

– Ensure Australia’s good reputation for quality is not diminished

– Learn how to read the market trends


• Further utilisation of the molecular marker

technology

– Need for the markers to have a greater impact in the

selection phase (presently mostly used in BC*F1

enrichment phase)

– Many markers need further refining

– Development of markers for traits difficult to

phenotype

– Followup Hossein Saberi’s work with screening

Doubled Haploids for ion toxicity tolerance to develop

molecular markers


• Targeted identification of parental material (prebreeding)

– Scan Winter Cereals collection (AWCC) material selected to come from areas where

the problem occurs regularly to identify new

sources of variation to be utilised by breeders

– build on UWAs strength in selecting ion

toxicity tolerance in new parental material


• Crop improvement Education– We welcome the involvement of some UWA

students in learning about our breeding programs by interview and assignment

– An ideal time to see the breeding program is in the spring when students can appreciate the differences in wheat varieties, and see most of the stages of breeding before them

– We would suggest seeing if you can take advantage of this opportunity to see the program in the field

GrainsWA Agricultural Zones

Grains

Breeding Methodology –

F2 Progeny

wheat breeding programs - uwa institute of ag · wheat breeding programs ... • marketing the...

Documents